This is Jack Nicholson’s best role in the last decade, bar none. For that reason alone, I highly recommend going to to see Martin Scorcese’s The Departed. This is a movie that has been nominated for a variety of awards and has recently been re-released in certain parts of the country as a prelude to what is expected to be a multitude of award victories.

I wasn’t really excited to go see this movie, but I am extremely glad that I did. This is a movie about “rats” – in other words, this is a movie about people who give people inside information. The Departed is masterfully directed by Scorcese and has a complex, yet attainable storyline that the entire audience can stay with throughout the movie. My roommate and I went to see this movie in a theater that was packed (literally) with older people and I could hear them muttering to themselves throughout the movie working out the plot. It was actually not annoying at all, which is surprising.

But back to the movie – there are magnificent performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon which are only accented by the veterans Martin Sheen and Jack Nicholson. Mark Wahlberg also turns in a performance that makes you want to kick him at times and shake his hand at times. But the real winner in this movie (besides Jack, as I stated above) has got to be DiCaprio.

So many people see this guy as the lovesick lunatic in The Titanic, but this movie shows his great acting ability. I hear that his other recent movie about diamonds in Africa really puts him over the top as the best actor of his generation, but since I haven’t seen that yet, I can only give him the credit that he deserves for The Departed. You look at this guy’s career from teenie bopper idol to starring roles in major movies like Catch Me If You Can and this movie and you really see a good transition from a child star to a Hollywood superstar.

I don’t want to get too much into the storyline of the movie here because anything that I say may ruin certain parts of the movie for you. But I highly suggest that you go out and see it in a theater while you still can. If not, then go and grab a DVD copy RIGHT NOW!